STRANGE INVADERS (1983)

STRANGE INVADERS (1983)

Tagline: 25 Years Ago They Arrived From Another Galaxy. Surprise--They're Still Here.

(Mystery, Sci-Fi, Its Aliens Isn’t It?) [PG]

Or you can try and forget the whole thing, go back to work, maybe clean your apartment and go see a movie. 

In this one, a Professor named Charles Bigelow, who teaches about bugs ends up having his daughter dropped off by his x-wife. She says she is headed out of town but doesn’t say when she will be back. He ends up going all the way to the Midwest to look for her but no one in the town where she was supposed to even knows who she is. Later Charlie ends up having a run-in with aliens in the town and contacts the FBI. No one believes him, but Betty Walker who works for a tabloid is interested enough to try and help him solve the mystery as to what is going on. 

First off, I am not sure if a scene got cut from this thing, but in the beginning, Charles is clearly dating a woman and is ready to go to the movies with her. Suddenly after Charles's x-wife shows up, that woman never shows up again? Not even a couple of days later Charlie is already kissing another woman. Bloody Hell! Outside of that though, this movie is basically intended to be an 80’s love letter to movies like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and I MARRIED A MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE. In that sense is it kind of a horror flick but for the most part, this is far more a mystery with a few aliens in disguise than it is a “thriller” or horror flick. We do get a few crazy alien effects though, so maybe that was the horror part?

Acting wise Paul Le Mat is fine as Charles Bigelow, but knowing that Mel Gibson was originally requested for the role would have changed this movie from almost unheard of to “iconic” at the time. Paul Le Mat is also in the cult classic horror flick PUPPET MASTER. The movie also features Nancy Allen who plays Betty Walker. Allen is a fantastic actress best known for playing Anne Lewis in the ROBOCOP series. She was only in 39 productions and stopped acting in 2008, but she has one of the more recognizable faces of the 80s. Her role in this is not as solid as she was in ROBOCOP, but she’s still pretty good. We also get Wallace Shawn who is in a few short scenes as Earl. He’s basically Betty’s landlord. Shawn is best known for his unforgettable role in THE PRINCESS BRIDE as Vizzini. 

In spite of the talents, this movie feels like it’s moving in slow motion. Even the few glimpses we get of the aliens throughout don’t really equate to mind-blowing storytelling. There are several scenes in the movie where there are pregnant pauses in the dialog that may or may not have been intended. The end result is a movie that feels more like an episode of THE OUTER LIMITS than anything else. It’s just very average and the ending is about as lackluster as it can get, it’s just oddly disappointing. This might be part of the reason that Michael Laughlin only directed 3 movies and 1 of them was the “proxy” prequel to this movie with a lot of the same actors called STRANGE BEHAVIOR. STRANGE BEHAVIOR and STRANGE INVADERS were trying to be part of a “STRANGE” trilogy. The 3rd film was never made. 

This also happens to be the second 80’s alien movie I have watched just this week that had a direct homage to E.T. THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL. The other movie was BIOHAZARD. 

Overall the acting talents we get can’t fix this movie, even if Mel Gibson would have put it on the map. The strange just isn’t that strange and the whole premise of the film kind of gets lost when we find out “why” the aliens are here. I have to give this thing a 3 out of 7. I love the 80’s but this thing is barely “Just Okay”.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF EMI FILMS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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